Difference between revisions of "Lake"

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Revision as of 18:47, 1 June 2011

Lake

Node Description and Purpose
The Lake object is the main water object in TG2. It creates a flat disc with a Water shader attached.

The Lake object not the only way to represent water. The Water Shader is what gives the Lake the appearance of water and you can apply the Water shader to other objects to give them a water-like appearance. The Lake object is a convenient way to create an area of water though.

Node Type: Water

Settings:

  • Handle in preview: If this is checked the bounding box and object handle for the Lake object is shown in the 3D Preview, allowing you to manipulate it in the preview.
  • Visible to camera: TBC
  • Visible to other rays: TBC
  • Cast shadows: TBC

Transform tab

  • Water level: This sets the level of the Lake above the surface of the planet it's attached to. Note that the Lake is a flat disc and it doesn't curve to match the planet radius.
  • Centre: The position of the centre of the Lake. The Y coordinate is tied to the Water level setting.
  • Max radius: This is the radius of the Lake disc. A Lake object is always round.
  • Import chan file: Click this button to import a chan file to animate the position of the Lake.


Additional tabs for Lake[edit]

A shader is a program or set of instructions used in 3D computer graphics to determine the final surface properties of an object or image. This can include arbitrarily complex descriptions of light absorption and diffusion, texture mapping, reflection and refraction, shadowing, surface displacement and post-processing effects. In Terragen 2 shaders are used to construct and modify almost every element of a scene.

The bounding box is a box which surrounds (or bounds) an object or shader. This box shows the maximum extents of the item inside it. Sometimes abbreviated as "b-box".